Great Caricatures: History, Art & Humor

August 1, 2007 3:17 PM

Great Caricatures.
posted by Effigy2000 (7 comments total)

Is this something I'd have to live a couple centuries ago to understand?
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 3:38 PM on August 1, 2007

Sweet. I always think of Aerosmith's Draw the Line cover by Al Hirschfeld when I think of caricatures, and he's still one of my favorite caricature artists. However, I remember that particular portrait used to scare me as a child, for some reason, but it stuck with me. Of course, the caricatures on that link are much older, but probably also public domain. The detail (particularly on the engravings) and histories are impressive.
posted by krinklyfig at 3:44 PM on August 1, 2007

This is great, and I appreciate all the work that's been put into the site, but it would have been nice if the scans were closer to original size. Even on the detail pages most of the Thomas Nast stuff is almost unreadable. Oh, I know, bitch bitch bitch!
posted by maryh at 3:51 PM on August 1, 2007

Brighton, where I live, has been caricatured for years - first as the love nest of George IV while Prince Regent, more recently as a traditional venue for political conferences (example). A good place to go for more (and the source of the example above) is the British Cartoon Archive at Canterbury University.
posted by athenian at 4:17 PM on August 1, 2007

Attractive presentation, but I'm dismayed they slice up the images into sections so you can't easily download the work without taking a screen shot. Seems awfully possessive and anti-Internet, especially for 100 year old public domain work.
posted by Peter H at 4:18 PM on August 1, 2007

Yeah I was going to mention the image splitting thing as well. Why would even bother? I mean it's not like people can't print screen 'em.
posted by delmoi at 4:38 PM on August 1, 2007

Oh yeah, also eponysterical.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 4:55 PM on August 1, 2007